Method and apparatus for transmission within a multi-carrier communication system

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus are provided for indicating to a communication unit a plurality of modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be utilized for communication. During a first MCS is determined for first resource blocks to be sent to a first remote unit or base station, and a second MCS is determined for a second resource block to be sent to the remote unit or base station. A message is transmitted indicating the first and the second MCS and also indicating the first resource blocks and the second resource block. Finally, a first PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or base station at a first time using the first MCS and the first resource blocks and a second PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or base station at the first time using the second MCS and the second resource block.

FIELD OF THE TECHNIQUE PROVIDED

The present invention relates generally to resource allocation and inparticular, to a method and apparatus for allocating resources andassociated modulation/coding schemes to a user.

BACKGROUND OF THE TECHNIQUE PROVIDED

Many modern orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) systemproposals include the capability to support frequency-selective resourceallocation. During frequency-selective resource allocation the channelbandwidth is divided into several sub-bands, which may be called tilesor resource blocks. Each resource block includes several adjacent OFDMsubcarriers and may span multiple OFDM symbol periods. For example, aresource block size that has been considered in the 3gpp long termevolution (LTE) standardization effort is 12 adjacent subcarriers by 14OFDM symbol periods. The use of resource blocks enables data allocationto a particular user to be made on the resource block having the bestchannel quality.

However, when a high data rate needs to be supported to/from a user, itmay be necessary to allocate multiple resource blocks (over frequency)to the user. This results in the difficulty of how to treat the multipleresource block allocation. In one possible approach, the modulation andcoding scheme (MCS) could be chosen independently for each of theallocated resource blocks. However, this approach can be inefficientwhen the set of available modulation coding schemes is limited, becausethe quality of the best resource block may be much higher than isactually needed for the supporting the highest-rate MCS available in thesystem. Another possible approach is to utilize a single MCS over all ofthe allocated resource blocks, where the codeword spans all of theallocated resource blocks to provide frequency diversity. The problemwith this approach is that it may results in a lower data rate orthroughput than the first approach. Therefore, there is a need for animproved method and apparatus for allocating resources and associatedmodulation/coding schemes to a user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system.

FIG. 2 illustrates multiple subcarrier transmission for thecommunication system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a resource block for an OFDM system.

FIG. 4 describes an exemplary frame structure.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of equipment that may be utilized as either abase station or user equipment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing operation of the apparatus of FIG. 5 whenacting as a base station.

In FIG. 7, is a flow chart showing the operation of the apparatus ofFIG. 5 when assigning at most two PDUs.

In FIG. 8, is a flow chart showing the operation of the apparatus ofFIG. 5 when assigning at most two PDUs.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing operation of the apparatus of FIG. 5 whenbeing utilized as a base station.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing operation of the apparatus of FIG. 5when being utilized as user equipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to address the above-mentioned need, a method and apparatus areprovided for indicating to a communication unit a plurality ofmodulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be utilized for communication.During a first MCS is determined for first resource blocks to be sent toa first remote unit or base station, and a second MCS is determined fora second resource block to be sent to the remote unit or base station. Amessage is transmitted indicating the first and the second MCS and alsoindicating the first resource blocks and the second resource block.Finally, a first PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or base stationat a first time using the first MCS and the first resource blocks and asecond PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or base station at thefirst time using the second MCS and the second resource block.

The above technique provides an improved method for determining whatresources to allocate to a user, and what modulation/coding schemes(MCSs) should be used on those resources (e.g., for improved linkadaptation performance). The above-technique takes into account the factthat the set of available MCSs is limited, and that the channel qualitymay be higher on certain resources than is necessary to support thehighest-rate MCS from the set of available MCSs. The technique providedperforms the resource allocations and MCS selections in such a way as totake advantage of excess signal quality to increase the overall datarate when multiple resources (e.g., multiple resource blocks overfrequency) are allocated to the user.

Different sets of resources assigned to a user over frequency may carrydifferent packet data units (PDUs) for that user. The technique providedalso provides signaling methods that reduce the signaling overhead foridentifying the resources and MCSs that should be assigned to the user.

The present invention encompasses a method for indicating to acommunication unit a plurality of modulation and coding schemes (MCSs)to be utilized for communication. The method comprises the steps ofdetermining a first MCS for first resource blocks to be sent to a firstremote unit or base station, determining a second MCS, differing fromthe first MCS, for a second resource block to be sent to the remote unitor base station, and transmitting a message indicating the first and thesecond MCS and also indicating the first resource blocks and the secondresource block. A first PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or basestation at a first time using the first MCS and the first resourceblocks, and a second PDU is transmitted to the remote unit or basestation at the first time using the second MCS and the second resourceblock.

The present invention additionally encompasses a method comprising thesteps of determining a first quality index for first resource blocks,determining a relative quality index for at least a second resourceblock, wherein the relative quality index is based on a quality of theat least second resource block relative to a quality of the firstresource blocks, transmitting a message indicating the first qualityindex and the relative quality index, wherein the message causes areceiver to determine a first modulation and coding scheme for the firstresource blocks and a second modulation and coding scheme for the atleast second resource block. In this method, the number of bits used torepresent the first quality index may differ from a number of bits usedto represent the relative quality index.

The present invention additionally encompasses an apparatus comprisinglogic circuitry performing the steps of determining a first MCS forfirst resource blocks to be sent to a first remote unit or base stationand determining a second MCS, differing from the first MCS, for a secondresource block to be sent to the remote unit or base station. Atransmitter is provided for transmitting a message indicating the firstand the second MCS and also indicating the first resource blocks and thesecond resource block, transmitting a first PDU to the remote unit orbase station at a first time using the first MCS and the first resourceblocks, and transmitting a second PDU to the remote unit or base stationat the first time using the second MCS and the second resource block.

The present invention additionally encompasses an apparatus comprisinglogic circuitry performing the steps of determining a first qualityindex for first resource blocks, determining a relative quality indexfor at least a second resource block, wherein the relative quality indexis based on a quality of the at least second resource block relative toa quality of the first resource blocks. A transmitter is provided fortransmitting a message indicating the first quality index and therelative quality index, wherein the message causes a receiver todetermine a first modulation and coding scheme for the first resourceblocks and a second modulation/coding scheme for the at least secondresource block.

For the description below, a packet data unit (PDU) can be considered asa particular block of data over which a single modulation and codingscheme (MCS) (e.g., QPSK modulation with R=½ turbo coding) is present. APDU may contain one or more codewords, or a portion of a singlecodeword, and multiple PDUs having the same MCS may be present.

Turning now to the drawings, wherein like numerals designate likecomponents, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of communication system 100.Communication system 100 comprises one or more cells 105 (only oneshown) each having a base transceiver station (BTS, or base station) 104in communication with a plurality of remote, or mobile units 101-103.(Remote units 101-103 may also be referred to as communication units,User Equipment (UE), mobiles, or simply users, while base station 101may also be referred to as a communication unit or simply Node-B). Inthe preferred embodiment of the present invention, communication system100 utilizes an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) ormulti-carrier based architecture. The use of transmit diversity may beemployed as well. When using transmit diversity, base station 104employs multiple antennas (not shown in FIG. 1) to transmit multipledata streams across multiple OFDM subcarriers to one or more receivingdevices 101-103. Base station 104 may also use spreading techniques suchas multi-carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA), multi-carrier direct sequence CDMA(MC-DS-CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing(OFCDM) with one or two dimensional spreading, or may be based onsimpler time and/or frequency division multiplexing/multiple accesstechniques, or a combination of these various techniques.

Base station 101 comprises a transmitter and receiver that serve anumber of remote units within a sector. As known in the art, the entirephysical area served by the communication network may be divided intocells, and each cell may comprise one or more sectors. Base station 101may employ multiple transmit antennas and/or multiple receive antennasto serve each sector in order to provide various advanced communicationmodes (e.g., adaptive beam forming, transmit/receive diversity,transmit/receive Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA), multiplestream transmission/reception, etc.).

As one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, during operation ofan OFDM system, multiple subcarriers (e.g., 300 subcarriers, asconsidered for one mode of 3gpp LTE) are utilized to transmit widebanddata. This is illustrated in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2 the widebandchannel is divided into many narrow frequency bands (subcarriers) 201,with data being transmitted in parallel on subcarriers 201. In additionto OFDM, communication system 100 utilizes Adaptive Modulation andCoding (AMC). With AMC, the modulation and coding format of atransmitted data stream for a particular receiver is changed based on anexpected received signal quality (at the receiver) or link quality forthe particular frame being transmitted.

The modulation and coding scheme may change on a frame-by-frame basis(where a frame could be defined as one or more OFDM symbol periods) inorder to track the channel quality variations that occur in mobilecommunication systems. Thus, resource blocks or links with high qualityare typically assigned higher order modulations rates and/or higherchannel coding rates with the modulation order and/or the code ratedecreasing as quality decreases. For those receivers experiencing highquality, modulation schemes such as 16 QAM, 64 QAM or 256 QAM areutilized, while for those experiencing low quality, modulation schemessuch as BPSK or QPSK are utilized. The selected modulation and codingmay only roughly match the current received signal quality for reasonssuch as channel quality measurement delay or errors, channel qualityreporting delay or errors, efforts to measure or predict current andfuture interference, and efforts to measure or predict the futurechannel.

Multiple coding rates may be available for each modulation scheme toprovide finer AMC granularity, to enable a closer match between thequality and the transmitted signal characteristics (e.g., R=¼, ½, and ¾for QPSK; R=½ and R=⅔ for 16 QAM, etc.). Note that adaptive modulationand coding (AMC) can be performed in the time dimension (e.g., updatingthe modulation/coding every N_(t) OFDM symbol periods) or in thefrequency dimension (e.g., updating the modulation/coding every N_(sc)subcarriers) or a combination of both. The combination of a particularmodulation scheme (e.g., 16-QAM) with a particular coding scheme (e.g.,R=½ turbo coding) can be referred to as an MCS. Each MCS that is used ina system may have an associated data rate value which is preferablynormalized to units of information bits per symbol. For example, the MCSof R=½ QPSK can provide 1 information bit per symbol (overheads, such astail bits, if present, could also be factored into the rate value, ifdesired). For convenience, the rate value of an MCS will be referred toas MCSR. An example set of MCSs is shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 MCS (or MCS index) Modulation Code Rate MCSR 1 BPSK 1/2 0.5 2QPSK 1/2 1 3 QPSK 3/4 1.5 4 16-QAM 1/2 2 5 64-QAM 1/2 3 6 64-QAM 3/4 4.57 64-QAM 1 (uncoded) 6

FIG. 3 illustrates the concept of Resource Blocks (RB). One type ofresource block consists of one or more subcarriers occupying one or moreOFDM symbols. For instance, one resource block may be a tile of 12subcarriers by 14 OFDM symbols. Not all of the modulation symbols withina RB may be available for data payload transmission, as some of themodulation symbols may be used for other purposes such as controlchannels or reference (e.g., pilot) signals. Moreover, not all of thesymbols of an RB need to be assigned to a single user. For example, someof the symbols could be assigned to a first user and other symbols couldbe assigned to a second user.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary frame structure using the resource blockstructure of FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 4, the total bandwidth is dividedinto several resource blocks (such as 401 and 403). As shown in detailfor resource block 401, each resource block may have the structure ofFIG. 3. To simplify signaling and reduce signaling overhead, a resourceblock is preferably defined as the atomic resource allocation a user canobtain in a single frame. One possibility is to assign all the resourceblocks to one user and one Packet Data Unit (PDU). Another possibilityis to assign several users in the frame by giving them differentresource blocks. For example, one user may be allocated resource block401, and another user resource block 403. Yet another possibility is toallocate the entire frame to one user, but to share the resource blocksamongst one or more PDUs. For instance, resource block 401 may beallocated to user 1 for PDU1, and resource block 402 may be allocated touser 2 for PDU2. Other possibilities exist as well.

Allocating one or more PDUs for the same user in the same frame witheach PDU being assigned its own MCS can bring significant performancebenefits. A PDU encoded with an MCS will preferably comprise at leastone error-correction codeword, such as a turbo encoded codeword. Thesecodewords may be called forward error correction (FEC) codewords. Insome cases, a PDU encoded with a MCS may comprise more than one FECcodeword, for example when the PDU is larger than a maximum number ofinformation bits that can be included within a single FEC codeword. Thecodeword or codewords associated with a PDU may be communicated on thesame ARQ or hybrid ARQ (HARQ) channel, or may be communicated onseparate ARQ or HARQ channels. It is also possible that spreading withor without multi-code transmission can be used either in addition to orinstead of FEC for one or more MCS levels. Like FEC, spreadingintroduces memory across the transmitted data.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of equipment 500 that may be utilized aseither a base station or user equipment. As shown, equipment 500comprises logic circuitry 501, transmit circuitry 502, receive circuitry503, and storage (database) 504. Storage 504 serves to store indexvalues for various modulation and coding schemes or quality levels. Forexample, and index of 1 could correspond to QPSK ⅛, an index of 2 toQPSK ¼, etc. In another embodiment, if the exponential effective SNRmapping methodology is used, the beta values and the correspondingstatic E_(s)/N₀ thresholds can be stored in 504.

Logic circuitry 501 preferably comprises a microprocessor controller,such as, but not limited to a Freescale PowerPC microprocessor. In thepreferred embodiment of the present invention logic circuitry 501 servesas means for controlling equipment 500, and as means for analyzingreceived message content, and means for determining modulation andcoding schemes for various resource blocks. Transmit and receivecircuitry 502-503 are common circuitry known in the art forcommunication utilizing well known OFDM protocols, and serve as meansfor transmitting and receiving messages.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing operation of the apparatus of FIG. 5 whenacting as a base station. In particular, the logic flow of FIG. 6illustrates one example of implementing such a process where more thanone PDU, each with its own MCS, is assigned to a single user. The logicbegins at step 601 where a set of RBs (e.g., all of the RBs across thechannel bandwidth, or a subset of the RBs) are ranked by logic circuitry501 in descending quality order so that the first ranked RB of the setis the RB where the best radio performance (e.g., highest link quality,highest MCS, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.) can be expected (e.g.,based on signal quality measurements, or channel quality feedbackinformation), and the last ranked RB of the set is the one where theworst performance is expected. Channel quality information may, forexample, be received in receiver 503. At step 603, a first RB allocationS is initiated by logic circuitry 501 by initializing S to the first RB(the best) of the set. At step 605, MCS_(sel), the best sustainable MCSover S is determined by logic circuitry 501. An example criterion for abest sustainable MCS is an MCS that if assigned provides the highestpossible data rate (e.g., highest MCSR) for an acceptable probability ofsuccessful transmission. At step 607, the best remaining RB of the set(i.e., excluding the RB that was selected at step 603) is selected bylogic circuitry 501. At step 609, an evaluation is performed by logiccircuitry 501 to determine whether MCS_(sel) could still be sustainedover an allocation spanning both S and this best remaining RB (i.e., aresource allocation that includes both the highest ranked RB and thesecond highest ranked RB). If yes, then logic circuitry 501 adds thebest remaining RB to S at step 619, and the logic flow continues to step615 where logic circuitry 501 determines whether there are any remainingRBs left from the set that have not yet been considered. If thedetermination is yes in step 615, the process returns to step 607followed again by step 609.

If the result of step 609 is no, then the total allocation S over whichMCS_(sel) can be sustained has been determined and can be assigned alongwith MCS_(sel) to the user in step 611 (or stored in storage 504 untilthe entire process flow is complete, for later use). The process ofassignment comprises assigning a PDU to be transmitted with transmitter502 on the RBs in the allocation with MCSsel.

Continuing, the logic flow continues to step 613 where logic circuitry501 re-initializes S to the best remaining RB of the set as wasdetermined in step 607. Also in step 607, a new value of MCS_(sei) isdetermined by logic circuitry 501 for the newly defined S. The logicflow then proceeds to step 615 where logic circuitry 501 determineswhether there are any remaining RBs left from the set that have not yetbeen considered. If the determination of step 615 is yes, then the logicflow returns to step 607. If the determination of step 607 is no, thenall of the RBs of the set have been considered and the currentallocation S and MCS_(sel) can be assigned by logic circuitry 501 to theuser along with all of the previously determined allocations. Note thateach of the allocations S has a different MCS. Also note that the RBscomprising a particular allocation based on this process are notnecessarily contiguous.

The process in FIG. 6 could potentially assign several PDUs to a singleuser. However, it is expected that allowing only two PDUs to be assignedto a user will provide most of the performance benefit of the techniqueprovided while simplifying the process and potentially reducingsignaling overhead.

In FIG. 7, is a flow chart showing the operation of the apparatus ofFIG. 5 when assigning at most two PDUs. The logic begins at step 701where the RBs of the set are ranked by logic circuitry 501 in descendingquality order so that the first RB is the RB where the best radioperformance can be expected, and the last RB is the one where the worstperformance is expected. Then, at step 703, a first RB allocation S isinitialized by logic circuitry 501 by initiating S to the first RB (thebest). At step 705, MCS_(sel), the best sustainable MCS over S isdetermined by logic circuitry 501. At step 707, the best remaining RB isselected by logic circuitry 501. At step 709, logic circuitry 501evaluates whether MCS_(sel) can be sustained over an RB allocationspanning S and this best remaining RB. In set notation, this is the setS∪{RB}. If yes, the best remaining RB is added by logic circuitry 501 toS at step 715. The logic flow then continues at step 717 where logiccircuitry 501 determines whether there are some remaining RBs in the setto process: if yes, the logic flow returns to step 707. There are nomore remaining RBs, the logic flow continues step 719 where logiccircuitry 501 allocates a first PDU over S (possibly the totality of theavailable RBs) and instructs transmitter 501 to transmit usingMCS_(sel). If on the other hand, at step 709, it is determined thatMCS_(sel) cannot be sustained over an RB allocation spanning S and thebest remaining RB, logic circuitry 501 evaluates MCS_(rest), the bestsustainable MCS over the all the remaining RBs of the set not part of Sat step 711. At step 713, by logic circuitry 501 assigns a first PDU toS to be transmitted with MCS_(sel) and a second PDU to be transmittedover all the remaining RBs of the set (that are not part of S) to betransmitted with MCS_(rest).

Another process to assign at most two PDUs for a same user in a sameframe is shown in FIG. 8. The process described in FIG. 8 maypotentially provide increased band-averaged link efficiency or data rateas compared to the process of FIG. 7, at the cost of increasedcomplexity in the process. The logic begins at step 801 where a set ofRBs are ranked by logic circuitry 501 in descending quality order sothat the first RB is the RB where the best radio performance can beexpected, and the last RB is the one where the worst performance isexpected. At step 803, an index is initialized by logic circuitry 501.At step 805, two MCSs are determined by logic circuitry 501:MCS_(best)(i), the best sustainable MCS on the i best RBs, andMCS_(rest)(i), the best sustainable MCS on the N−i remaining RBs. Therate values associated with MCS_(best)(i) and MCS_(rest)(i) are denotedas MCSR_(best)(i) and MCSR_(rest)(i), respectively. At step 807, anothervalue, MCSR_(eq)(i), which represents the equivalent or net MCSR overthe entire set of RBs is computed by logic circuitry 501, and ispreferably computed based on the following equation:

MCSR _(eq)(i)=i*MCSR _(best)(i)+(N−i)*MCSR _(rest)(i).

At step 809, by logic circuitry 501 increments i by 1. At step 811,logic circuitry 501 compares i against N+1. If i<N+1, and the logic flowreturns to step 805. If i=N+1, j, the index that maximized MCSR_(eq) isdetermined by logic circuitry 501 at step 813. At step 815, a first PDUis allocated by logic circuitry 501 for the j best RBs and logiccircuitry 501 will instruct transmitter 502 to transmit withMCS_(best)(j), and a second PDU for the remaining RBs (MCS_(rest)(j)).

In an additional aspect, power redistribution can optionally be employedin order to further improve system performance. For instance, when twoMCSs have been assigned using the algorithm described in FIG. 8, theexcess power on both PDU1 (with MCS₁) and PDU2 (with MCS₂) can begathered: for each PDU, just enough power is allocated to sustain theselected MCS. The remaining power can then be re-distributed: one policycan be to redistribute power in order to add RBs initially allocated toPDU2, the PDU with the lower MCSR, to PDU1, the PDU with the best MCS.The RBs, when sorted from best to worst are then taken sequentially toimprove the MCS on the considered RB by some amount. Alternatively, theRBs can be selected in a way that power redistribution will maximize thelink efficiency (averaged over the two PDUs, such as the equivalent ornet MCSR). Power redistribution is particularly useful in a multi-usercontext where users are likely to be scheduled on their best RBs andwhen the resource blocks or bins allocated to the second PDU are likelyto be used for collision resolution.

Any of the techniques previously described can be applied either on theuplink or on the downlink, regardless of the duplexing method (e.g., TDDor FDD). Also, various modifications can be made to the processes whileremaining within the scope of the technique provided, or differentprocesses could be used, while remaining within the scope of thetechnique provided, that provide the same effect of allocating multipleMCSs over frequency to a single user while taking advantage of excesssignal quality on one or more RBs to expand the number of RBs that caneffectively support/utilize a particular MCS.

An additional aspect of the technique provided involves improvedsignaling/messaging. The following embodiments will be described for thecase where the user transmits channel quality information to a basestation in order to assist the base station in determining the sets ofRBs and their associated MCSs to use when transmitting to the user onthe downlink but the technique provided is applicable to other scenariosas well (e.g., role of downlink and uplink reversed, role of basestation and user reversed, etc.).

The use of differing modulation and coding schemes for each set ofresource blocks requires messaging to identify each set of resourceblocks and the modulation and coding scheme utilized on each of the setsof resource blocks. Supplying this information increases the signalingoverhead, and, in order to be as efficient as possible, the amount offeedback needs to be reduced.

In order to address this issue, user equipment can determine channelquality information (CQI) comprising of, for example, the set ofresource blocks that it recommends to be included in each allocationalong with a channel quality indicator (e.g., SNR, SINR, or MCS index)for each of the recommended allocations. The user equipment can thenfeedback the channel quality information (CQI) of each set of resourceblocks in a single message so that the proper MCS may be chosen for eachof the set of resource blocks. For example, when two sets of resourceblocks are being utilized, the user equipment will be determining firstquality information and a corresponding first index for a first set ofresource blocks and determining second quality information for a secondset of resource blocks. Quality index values for the first and thesecond quality information will be determined and a single message willbe transmitted from the user equipment indicating the first and thesecond qualities. The first and the second qualities may be representedindividually, or by linking the value of the one quality index to theother (e.g., by the first quality index, and a difference between thesecond index and the first quality index, respectively). Moreparticularly, for the linked case, the second quality information can berelative to the first quality information and can be communicated by arelative quality index as a difference of quality index between thefirst and second quality index. The relative quality index enables thereceiver to determine the second quality index when both the firstquality index and the relative quality index are known. In one example,a single bit indicator may be used to signal the difference of qualityindex such that if the bit value is “0”, then index of MCS₂ is index ofMCS₁ minus 1 and if the bit value is “1”, then index of MCS₂ is index ofMCS₁ minus 2. Additionally, the message may comprise an indication ofwhich resource blocks should use the first MCS (or which resource blocksare associated with the first quality value) and which resource blocksshould use the second MCS (or which resource blocks are associated withthe second quality value). A bitmap representation may be used toefficiently convey this information. An exemplary CQI message may be asfollows:

-   -   1. MCS    -   2. MCS₂    -   3. A bitmap message of N bits, where N is the number of        available resource blocks. A bit value of “1” at position k        would mean that MCS₁ is associated with RB number k, whereas a        bit value of “0” at position k would mean that MCS₂ is        associated with RB number k.

Note that with this type of a CQI message, the user equipment isindicating to the base station that when the base station subsequentlytransmits to the user equipment, a first PDU may be supported with bestsustainable MCS₁ on all RBs with a bit value of “1”, and a second PDUmay be supported with best sustainable MCS₂ on all RBs with a bit valueof “0”, where each PDU is separately modulated and coded. Also note thatif the channel quality is time varying, a new CQI message, based on thecurrent channel conditions, may need to be periodically transmitted bythe user equipment to enable the quality changes to be tracked.

The actual RBs and MCS used for transmission may be the same ordifferent than those on which CQI is reported. Also, the CQI message maynot all be transmitted in a single frame. For example, a frame mightcontain either MCS₁ or MCS₂ or part of the bitmap. As another example,one frame may contain MCS₁ and part of the bitmap, and another maycontain MCS₂ and part of the bitmap. In another example, a CQI messagein some frames may be configured to provide a differential update toinformation that was transmitted in a previous frame or previous frames.

MCS₁ and MCS₂ can be represented by an MCS index. In order to furtherreduce feedback, MCS₂ may be sent relative to MCS₁: in other words, theindex corresponding to MCS₂ may be sent as a difference between theindex corresponding to MCS₁ and the index corresponding to MCS₂. Forexample, the difference values represented by the corresponding bit(s)in the message may be fixed, or could be dependent on the value of MCS₁,or other factors. In general, to reduce overhead, MCS₂ may be dependenton any information known by both the base station and the remote unit.Some examples of this other information may be the value of MCS₁, or aband-averaged SNR value. For instance, the user equipment may feedback aband-average channel quality indicator (e.g., SNR) in addition to otherCQI information. In one example of utilizing the band-average CQI, for aband-averaged SNR greater than 10 dB, a value of “1” (“0”, respectively)for MCS₂ may mean that for the second set of resource blocks, thetransmitter should use the MCS index corresponding to the MCS index forMCS₁ minus one (minus two, respectively). For instance, for aband-averaged SNR greater than 10 dB, a value of “1” (“0”, respectively)for MCS₂ may mean that for the second set of resource blocks, thetransmitter should use the MCS index corresponding to the MCS index forMCS₁ minus two (minus three, respectively). Also, alternatively, insteadof sending MCS index values, the user equipment may transmit any radiolink quality information that may be used to determine an MCS, such asan SNR value, an effective SNR value, a mutual information value, or adata rate value. For example, depending on the band-averaged SNR valueand a single bit being used for MCS₂, a value of “1” may correspond to areduction of 1 bit per symbol of spectral efficiency, while a value of“0” may correspond to a reduction of 0.5 bit per symbol of spectralefficiency. Alternatively, MCS₂ could also always be selected to be aknown value (e.g., QPSK R ⅓). In another example, in order to reducesignaling, the MCSs and set of RBs selected for PDU1 and PDU2 can bedecided such that there is a finite set of differences possible betweenthe indices of MCS1 and MCS2. This further reduces the number of bits tocode the difference between the MCS₂ index and the MCS₁ index.

After the base station determines which resource blocks and MCSs toactually assign to the user equipment (for the user equipment to receiveinformation from the base station), the assignment information can becommunicated to the user equipment using a downlink control channel. Inorder to limit the message size of the control channel transmitted bythe base station to the remote unit, several possibilities are listedbelow for the assignment message format:

Example 1 Fixed Size Assignment, One HARQ Channel

For some embodiments, the control message size may be fixed for eachuser equipment. In such a case, the following fields may be included inthe fixed size assignment message:

1. HARQ channel ID.

2. User ID;

3. The set of resource blocks (RB1) used for PDU1;

4. The modulation and coding scheme for RB 1;

5. The set of resource blocks (RB2) used for PDU2; and

6. The modulation and coding scheme for RB2(MCS₂).

In this example, the same HARQ channel is used for both PDU1 and PDU2,with the consequence that if only one of the two transmitted PDUs cannotbe decoded, both will have to be retransmitted. The user ID is auniquely assigned identifier so that it can be determined to which userequipment this resource assignment message applies. The MCS can besignalled in a way similar than for the CQI information. In particular,MCS₂ can be indicated with an index relative to MCS₁ with a processsimilar to the one described above to save signalling bits. Similarly,the two sets of resource blocks can be indicated with a bitmap fieldsimilar to the CQI bitmap field. It is implicitly indicated that aseparate Packet data unit (PDUs) will then be transmitted over each setof resource blocks during the same time period, and that each PDU willbe separately modulated and coded. The user ID may be a MAC ID.

Example 2 Fixed Size Assignment, Two HARQ Channels

In example 1, when sending a single HARQ channel ID, failure on one ofthe two transmitted PDUs will trigger the retransmission of the twotransmitted PDUs, even if one was correctly received. In order to avoidthis problem, the base station may send two HARQ channel IDs in theassignment message (one for PDU1 and another for PDU2). In addition, theHARQ channel ID for PDU2 may be implicitly signalled: for instance, ifHARQ_ID1 is used for PDU1, HARQ_ID2 may be automatically set up toHARQ_ID1+1 modulo the number of HARQ channels.

Example 3 Joint Assignment, One HARQ Channel

Since more than one user may be scheduled in one frame, the base stationcan take advantage of this multi-user situation by jointly coding allthe assignment messages into a single assignment message. For example,the base station may transmit:

-   -   1. A list of user IDs    -   2. The following fields, M times (where M is the number of user        equipments scheduled in the same frame):        -   a. HARQ channel ID        -   b. MCS₁        -   c. MCS₂    -   3. A bitmap region with the following fields, N times (where N        is the number of available resource blocks):        -   a. Short user equipment ID        -   b. One bit, where “0” means that this particular resource            block is for the first set of resource blocks (corresponding            to PDU1), and “1” means that this particular resource block            is for the second set of resource blocks (corresponding to            PDU2)

The short UE ID is a unique identifier for a particular user ID and isvalid for this frame only. It can be derived form the order in which theM user IDs are transmitted: for instance, the user whose user ID islisted first would be assigned the short ID of value “0” (in decimal),the second, a short ID of value “1”, etc. Alternatively, the short IDcan be explicitly signalled when the list of user IDs is transmitted,and may be valid for more than a frame.

Example 4 Joint Assignment, Two HARQ Channels

This embodiment is similar to the previous one, but two HARQ channel IDsare signalled: one for the first PDU and one for the second PDU.

Example 5 Joint Assignment with Variable Control Assignment Size

With example 3, the size of the control assignment message is fixed.While this is suitable if all the users transmit two PDUs, it may resultin a waste of resources if some users transmit only one PDU. A solutionin this case consists in sending the information for PDU2 only whenneeded. The format of the resource assignment message can be as follows:

-   -   1. A list of user IDs    -   2. The following fields, M times (where M is the number of user        equipments scheduled in the same frame):        -   a. One bit to indicate if the assignment is for one or two            PDUs        -   b. HARQ channel ID        -   c. MCS₁        -   d. MCS₂ (if two assignments)    -   3. A bitmap region with the following fields, N times (where N        is the number of available resource blocks):        -   a. Short user equipment ID        -   b. If only one assignment, nothing else. If more than one            assignment, one bit, where “0” means that this particular            resource block is for the first set of resource blocks            (corresponding to PDU1), and “1” means that this particular            resource block is for the second set of resource blocks            (corresponding to PDU2)            It is of course possible to signal two HARQ channel IDs if            desired.

A Packet data unit (PDUs) will then be communicated over each set ofresource blocks during the same time period. Each PDU will be separatelymodulated and coded.

The system may support multiple antenna transmission, such as transmitdiversity, open loop MIMO, closed loop beamforming, or closed loop MIMO.A multiple antenna format may include possibly different complextransmit antenna weights applied to each resource block. A multipleantenna transmission may include multiple spatial streams on a resourceblock intended for a single remote unit, where on the resource blockdifferent antenna weights are used to transmit each spatial stream.These spatial streams may each be intended to have its own PDU orintended to have a single PDU for all streams, or some combination. Withmulti-stream transmission, there is at least one resource block on whichtwo or more streams are transmitted by spatial multiplexing.

When multiple antennas are used to transmit multiple streams, eachstream may be configured to have two PDUs each with a MCS and a RB set.A multiple antenna transmission format may be communicated in additionto the assignment information for the PDUs (MCS₁, set RB1, MCS₂, setRB2). Such communication may include an indication of the antennatransmission weights such as via a codebook. If multiple spatial streamsare present and multiple PDU are intended, multiple sets of PDU1 andPDU2 (with associated MCS₁ and RB1) may be transmitted. For example,stream 1 may have PDU1 and PDU2, while stream 2 may have PDU3 and PDU4.To reduce signaling, RB1=RB3 and RB2=RB4. Alternatively, stream 2 mayonly have a single MCS on its assigned RBS, which may be some or all ofRB1 and RB2.

To reduce signaling when multiple antenna techniques are supported, thesignaling may be configured to support either multi-stream MIMO or twoor more PDU on non-overlapping sets of RBs. Such reconfigurablesignaling may be especially efficient if the multi-stream case has twointended PDUs and two PDUs (with different RBs and MCS) are alsosupported. In this case, the system may have stream 1 with PDU1/MCS₁/RB1and PDU2/MCS₂/RB2, or stream 1 PDU1/MCS₁ and stream 2 PDU2/MCS₂. For themulti-stream case, RB1 and RB2 overlap on at least one RB, and RB1 maybe equal to RB2. The configuration of the signaling may be performed ina number of ways, including:

-   -   A bit indicating multi-stream MIMO or not    -   An entry in a table indexed by a multi-bit ‘multi antenna’        field.    -   A codebook entry having a certain value to indicate 2 PDUs on a        single stream    -   Two codebook entries having the same value indicating 2 PDUs on        a single stream    -   A transmission matrix is sent that is rank 1.    -   Remote unit blindly decodes control channel looking for each of        two possible formats. Formats may differ physically in either        number of information bits, coding rate, or seeded CRC.

Other than the overall configuration, different bit fields may be eitherretained or remapped. For example, both modes may require a MCS fieldfor each PDU. If for the multi-stream configuration only a single RBallocation is present (both streams use same set of RBs) then the singlestream 2 PDU case a second RB allocation may be provided, or the RBallocation may be assumed to be the inverse of the RB allocation of thefirst PDU on all or part of the band.

The number of streams that may be supported with multi-streamtransmission is not constant. For instance, because of changes in thespatial environment, two streams may no longer be supported. When astream is terminated, the current HARQ process on that stream can bemapped onto one of the remaining streams using a different set of RBs.One of the previously described algorithms can be used to determine theMCS on the two set of RBs. When a stream is added, the signaling for asecond HARQ channel can be used.

Example 7 Fixed Assignment Message with Power Allocation

In order to further improve system performance, it is possible toperform power allocation on a per RB basis. In that case, the message ofexample 1 can be reused. In addition, a bitmap message with the powerallocation per RB can be transmitted. In order to limit the feedback,the power indication may be differentially encoded, with the referencepower value known by both the transmitter and the receiver.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing operation of equipment 500 when beingutilized as a base station. During operation, a CQI message is receivedby receiver 503 from user equipment (step 901). As discussed above, theCQI message will comprise information on the quality of any receivedsignal for a number of resource blocks being used. Thus, at step 901 atleast first quality information is received for a first set of resourceblocks, and second/relative quality information is received for a secondset of resource blocks (in one of the many examples outlined above). Thefirst and the second set of resource blocks may simply comprise oneresource block. Additionally, as discussed above, each resource blockcomprises a contiguous set of subcarriers.

At step 903 logic circuitry 501 determines a first MCS for a first setof resource blocks and a second MCS for a second set of resource blocks.As one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, the MCS chosen foreach set of resource blocks is related to at least the perceived qualityover this set of resource blocks by the user equipment. Logic circuitrythen accesses storage 504 and determines a first MCS index for the firstset of resource blocks and a second MCS index for the second set ofresource blocks (step 905). These may be represented as a first and asecond bit, the first bit indicating a set of resource blocks the firstresource blocks are allocated, and the second bit indicating a secondset of resource blocks the second resource block is allocated.

At step 907 logic circuitry 501 instructs transmitter 502 to transmit amessage to the user equipment indicating the first and the second MCSand also indicating the first and the second resource blocks. The firstand the second MCS are represented by the first and the second MCSindex. Alternatively, the first and the second MCS may be represented bythe first MCS index and a difference between the first MCS index and thesecond MCS index, respectively. Alternatively, the MCS may be signaledby any of the examples given above. Finally, at step 909 transmitter 502transmits a first PDU to the user equipment at a first time using thefirst MCS and first set of resource blocks and additionally transmits asecond PDU to the user equipment at the first time using the second MCSand the second set of resource blocks.

It should be noted, that while the above logic flow was directed towardsa base station transmitting to a mobile, or remote unit, one of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that the above logic flow may beimplemented within a remote unit that is transmitting data to a basestation using multiple resource blocks. It should also be noted thatwhen power allocation is taking place, a first power allocation for thefirst resource blocks and a second power allocation for the secondresource block may be determined by logic circuitry 501 and a secondmessage may be transmitted by transmitter 502 indicating the first andsecond power allocations. Also, when there is determined a need to sendthe first and the second PDUs within a single MIMO stream, a first MIMOcodebook index may be transmitted within the first message. Amulti-antenna field may additionally be transmitted within the firstmessage, where the multi-antenna field indicates that transmission isnot a multi-stream transmission.

When HARQ is being utilized, transmitter 502 may also transmit a singleHARQ channel indicator for the first PDU sent on the first resourceblocks and the second PDU sent on the second resource block.Alternatively, a first HARQ channel indicator for the first PDU sent onthe first resource blocks and a second HARQ channel indicator for thesecond PDU sent on the second resource block may be transmitted.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing operation of equipment 500 when beingutilized as user equipment. The logic flow begins at step 1001 wherelogic circuitry determines first quality information for a first set ofresource blocks and a second quality information for a second set ofresource blocks. Each set of resource blocks may comprise only a singleresource block. At step 1003 logic circuitry accesses storage 504 anddetermines a first quality index and a second quality index. A qualityindex reflects a quality value in some predetermined format (e.g., a setof one or more bits representing a numerical quality value directly orindirectly, one or more bits that serve as a pointer into a predefinedtable (e.g., an MCS index in Table 1, an SINR table), etc.). The secondquality index can be represented either directly, or as a relative ordifference quality index from the first quality index, so the secondquality can be referred to or denoted as a second/relative quality. Thequality information and/or index is preferably based on at least one ofSNR, effective SNR, SINR, effective SINR, mutual information, MCS, ordata rate, or may comprise other quality information. Note that thefeedback overhead can be reduced if relative quality is used because thenumber of bits used to represent the first quality index can differ fromthe number of bits used to represent the relative quality index. Forexample, a plurality of bits may be used to represent the first qualityindex with good accuracy, and the relative quality index may berepresented with a smaller number of bits (as little as 1 bit) to reduceoverhead, especially when the quality of the second resource block(s) isexpected to be correlated or close to that of the first blocks.

Logic circuitry 501 then instructs transmitter 502 to transmit a messageindicating the first quality and the relative quality information (step1005). As discussed, the first quality and the relative quality arerepresented by the first quality index, and a relative index,respectively. The message causes a receiver to determine modulation andcoding schemes for the first resource blocks and the second resourceblock.

Finally, at step 1007 data is received over the first and the second setof resource blocks. As discussed above, the data for each set ofresource blocks will have a unique modulation and coding scheme based onthe quality of each set of resource blocks.

While the technique provided has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to a particular embodiment, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of thetechnique provided. For example, in a communication system utilizing aMultiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) the signalling used for signallingtwo PDUs case can be reused, at least in part. For instance, if thefirst and second codebook indexes are identical, then it could mean thattwo PDUs are sent on a single stream. The MCSs for stream one could beused for PDU1. It is intended that such changes come within the scope ofthe following claims.

1. (canceled)
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 12. A method comprising the steps of: determining a firstquality index for first resource blocks; determining a relative qualityindex for at least a second resource block, wherein the relative qualityindex is based on a quality of the at least second resource blockrelative to a quality of the first resource blocks; transmitting amessage indicating the first quality index and the relative qualityindex, wherein the message causes a receiver to determine a firstmodulation and coding scheme for the first resource blocks and a secondmodulation and coding scheme for the at least second resource block. 13.The method of claim 12 wherein a number of bits used to represent thefirst quality index differs from a number of bits used to represent therelative quality index.
 14. The method of claim 12 wherein each resourceblock from the first resource blocks comprise a first plurality ofsubcarriers and the second resource block comprises a second pluralityof subcarriers.
 15. The method of claim 12 wherein the first qualityvalue/index is based on at least one of SNR, effective SNR, SINR,effective SINR, mutual information, MCS, or data rate.
 16. (canceled)17. (canceled)
 18. An apparatus comprising: logic circuitry performingthe steps of: determining a first quality index for first resourceblocks; determining a relative quality index for at least a secondresource block, wherein the relative quality index is based on a qualityof the at least second resource block relative to a quality of the firstresource blocks; and a transmitter transmitting a message indicating thefirst quality index and the relative quality index, wherein the messagecauses a receiver to determine a first modulation and coding scheme forthe first resource blocks and a second modulation/coding scheme for theat least second resource block.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18 whereineach resource block from the first resource blocks comprises a firstplurality of subcarriers and the second resource block comprises asecond plurality of subcarriers.
 20. The apparatus of claim 18 whereinthe first quality index is based on at least one of SNR, effective SNR,SINR, effective SINR, mutual information, MCS, or data rate.